“There were two attacks and a huge crater was created in the no man’s land between the Syrian and Lebanese sides. It is very difficult for vehicles to drive on this road,” said Rula Amin, Senior Communications Advisor for the UN refugee agency. UNHCRfor the Middle East and North Africa.
From Amman, Ms. Amin said there were people at the Masnaa crossing so “desperate to escape Lebanon that they actually walked down that ruined road.”
Hundreds of thousands of people have entered Syria via this route in the past 10 days, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration.IOM).
Escape routes
“The conflict is intensifying,” said Mathieu Luciano, head of the IOM office in Lebanon. From Beirut he said this would be approximately between September 21 and October 3 235,000 people had crossed overland into Syria, including 82,000 Lebanese and 152,000 Syrians.
Citing Lebanese authorities, Mr Luciano added that during the same period, 50,000 mainly Lebanese and 10,000 Syrians had left Beirut airport and around 1,000 had fled by sea.
About a million people in Lebanon are estimated to have been displaced since October last year, amid intensified firefights on either side of the UN-monitored Blue Line, which divides Lebanon and Israel, after the outbreak of war in Gaza.
IOM data indicates that as of Oct. 2 In the past two weeks alone, 400,000 people have been displacedamid ongoing Israeli military operations in Lebanon, including ground incursions in the south.
The fate of migrant workers
“Of these, more than 165,000 live in 800 collective shelters spread across the country. These are schools that the government has opened as a matter of urgency,” said IOM’s Mr. Luciano. “Of course, the numbers continue to rise, while heavy shelling continues in the south in the Bekaa (valley), in Beirut and other regions.”
Humanitarians said there is particular concern over the fate of Lebanon’s 180,000 migrant workers – many of whom are female domestic workers – who have been left destitute by the mass displacement.
“We receive increasing reports of migrant domestic workers being abandoned by their Lebanese employers; either left on the streets or in the houses while their employers flee… They come from Ethiopia, from Kenya, from Sri Lanka, Sudan, Bangladesh and the Philippines. And they are also deeply affected by the violence in the country.”
According to Lebanese health authorities, Israeli ground and air strikes are waging across Lebanon, including southern Beirut 37 people have been killed in the past 24 hourswith another 151 injured.
Major health needs
UN humanitarians and partners have spent months strengthening Lebanese health capacity to deal with a massive influx of wounded people. “This is already happening” in the country’s medical facilities, IOM’s Luciano told journalists in Geneva, as news broke that a first humanitarian cargo plane had landed in Beirut with enough medical supplies to treat tens of thousands of injured patients.
“Let’s be very clear about that If the situation continues to spread, we will all face major challenges in how we respond”, he added.
Welcoming news of the arrival of the humanitarian flight in Beirut, says head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said further flights were planned “with more trauma supplies, as well as mental health and cholera supplies”.
The misery of returning Syrians
For those crossing into Syria, UNHCR said they were likely to return to damaged homes with little access to basic services.
“What we see today is that the risks that these refugees face in Lebanon as a result of the bombings – lack of adequate shelters, lack of access to services – mean that refugees are making a very, very difficult choice, so it is stay or to stay. in Lebanon with that growing risk…or make the decision to go back and cross the border into Syria with all the other risks in mind,” said Ms. Amin of UNHCR.
Since October 2023, the UN refugee agency has distributed more than 223,000 items to people in need and financial assistance to 70,000 people.
The response also includes carrying out repairs or supporting collective shelters, providing emergency medical care in a network of 42 hospitals across Lebanon.
“As the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate, UNHCR is working to strengthen the supply of much-needed relief supplies to meet increasing needs and prepare for possible further escalations and displacement,” Ms. Amin continued.